This week I donated to the National Kidney Foundation. A relative is doing their annual walk so it was an easy pick. They’re a great charity that’s been around for a long time, doing good work. Consider helping them out!

I’m having a really hard time getting through what I’m calling the “obvious” places to donate to. Not a bad problem to have, I guess. Looking at my ongoing list, It’s going to be months before I really have to dig too deep.

And once again, another easy one. Good people doing great things to help those in need. I’ve never donated to Planned Parenthood before so this is long, long overdue. Give them some help if you’re able.

I’m a list-maker at heart. I’m also a geek who likes to play with tools and software. So, from the beginning of this project, I new I’d be building some sort of database/tracking mechanism to keep tabs on how I’m doing and what I’m doing.
I’m starting simple though. I’ve put together a really basic google-spreadsheet to keep track of each monetary donation I make. I’m making note of the amount, the name of the donee, a link to the donation page (if available) and general notes (when necessary).
I’m certain I’ll quickly grow out of this format, but for now it works well. I’ve also pre-populated a date column with every Friday for the next year. I’m hoping this will continue to encourage me to plan ahead.
I’m also using this spreadsheet as a backlog. In the donee column I’m just stacking up names of places/people I want to help. It’s exciting how quickly the list is filling.

Another easy one this week. Expect more like this for the first few weeks. Child’s play are clearly just out to do nothing but good. This is the kind of organization that I’d love to be a part of some day. I chose to donate directly to a local hospital. I picked some things off of the wishlist and had them shipped direct.
I can’t urge you enough to check them out for yourself and donate today!

Child’s Play is a great charity that collects “toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world.”

They seem to focus on providing games to help sick kids deal with being sick and in the hospital. One thing I really like is that they really focus on eliminating the middle man (them) as much as possible and just getting donations straight to the hospitals/children.

On their website, you can choose which hospital (local or otherwise) you’d like to donate to. They take you to an amazon wishlist/registry page and you can donate and have the items shipped right to the hospital.

I don’t think I help enough. I am certainly able to help more than I do. This is an experiment to see if I can help more.

Initially and fundamentally this is about financial help, but I’m leaving the option open for the goals of this project to change.

Just for giggles, here are a couple of lists of goals:

Short term:

In a year, donate something to charitable/cultural/artistic organizations and people who could use the money.

Volunteer my time

Give blood on a regular schedule

Longer term:

In a year, donate way more than 10% of my gross income

Do something ‘bigger’ than volunteering my time

None of this is hard. All of these goals are attainable. It shouldn’t be hard. But, for some reason, I’m not doing any of those things right now. So, the Helping Help project is born today. I’m launching it in blog form under the assumption that I’m not the only one that feels this way and maybe others can help me out along the way.